Some days I really feel the need to engage in touristy activities. My friend that was in town studied architecture in college, so she wanted to check out the Museum of Modern Art. After doughnuts, the five of us took the subway and then walked the remaining distance to the MoMA. Though the actual building was less unique than the Guggenheim museum, the exhibits were far more entertaining. There were six complete levels and the whole thing was like a maze with different little crannies containing different art movements or artists.
The sixth floor of the MoMA always houses special traveling exhibits. Without knowing beforehand, we came on the perfect day. Le Corbusier’s work was what was featured on the sixth floor. We absolutely learned about him in architecture history classes, but I had no idea his work was as incredible as what I witnessed in the museum. I was absolutely astonished by the mastery of his work. What a creative genius he was. His works were so inspiring to me that they made me want to do architecture even more than I know I already do. I think it’s so stunning that someone could forge such masterpieces with nothing but his or her bare hands.
Though I don’t really stop to read the placards in museums, it took us an entire 6 hours to get through the museum. The people I was with weren’t huge museum people, so I was rushing a little to get through the entire thing. I’m sure I could have spent many more hours in this incredibly inspiring place if I were given the time. I mostly paid attention to the names of the artists, the names of the pieces, and what year they were created. I was surprised that I recognized many of the artist’s names. I feel like I don’t retain information I learn in class a lot of times, yet my familiarity with the pieces of art certainly came from my education.
Walking out, we passed the new “Rain Room” exhibit. I’ve seen a few of my NYU friends post pictures while inside the Rain Room, so at first I really thought it would be a good thing to check out. That was until we figured out that the wait time was set for 8 hours. I think it’s a really neat thing that humankind has developed the technology to be able to contain rain showers. Water droplets pause when a passerby is located underneath the installation. It all sounds really neat, but there was no way we were going to wait in line for that long. It was a rainy day outside again, so if I wanted to experience rain, I would have just stepped out onto the street and watched the heavens work their magic.
After our six-hour layover inside the museum, we were all starving, and exhausted. We went into a cute little café near the museum. I got some soup since the weather outside was a little on the chili side (Is it bad that my own jokes crack me up most of the time?). Our meal being completed, we all decided to go our separate ways. We all planned on taking two-hour naps before our scheduled sushi reservation at 8:00pm. I actually sunk into a very deep sleep and woke up in a startle because I thought I had missed the whole night! I hate taking naps that I have to set an alarm for because I always seem to wake up feeling groggier than I had been all day. Once I took a shower and turned my baby-making-music Pandora station on full blast, I was up and ready to go. It’s always good to see old friends.
Always,
Alena Netia Horowitz
